To Know

John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

I have watched my children develop and grow over the last decade and recently had an interesting insight about what it is to know God.

There was a day when my children did not know what a peach was. This happens to be my favorite fruit. A freshly picked, juicy peach is something I treasure. I am very happy to report that Shelby just purchased a Lemon Elberta Peach tree and planted it in our back yard. We both look forward to the day that we will benefit from its fruits. Yum.

Still my children, in the beginning, did not know the peach, so I taught them.
Somewhere in their development they learned its shape and color and could pick it out in a book. They could read the letters P E A C H and an image would pop into their mind. But they did not know the peach as I do. They didn’t know the tart, savory taste, the juiciness, the squishy manner in which it gushes flavor with each bite. They had more yet to learn.

Sometime later they were given many opportunities to try peaches out of a can. While this may be rewarding for a child, anyone who has tasted the freshly picked, large juicy ripe peach knows that there is little to no comparison. They did not know the peach as I do.

Then one day they got to taste it… right off the tree. Big, plump, juicy, and ripe. Just the way a peach should be. They really enjoyed it, but it did not stir in them the way it stirred in me. I realized that I had many, many memories attached to these juicy peaches. I had tasted tasteless, sandy types. I had tasted crunchy sour, not-quite-ripe types (the preferred mode in Korea). I had even tasted the plump, juicy, sweet type that still somehow fell short of the peach I have in my memory right now. On occasion, however, I find that peach… and I savor it. I know it when I have it.

It is in just such a situation that I realize that there is necessarily more to knowing a real peach than just knowing how to spell it, spot it out, recognize it’s texture or its flavor. I realize that my knowledge of the peach is limited compared to the farmer who harvests them annually, or the genetic engineer that seeks to create new, better varieties. I know the peach only at one level.

I have reflected at times about what it is to know God. I conclude that, like the peach, we may know him at varying levels of intimacy. I believe His hope is that we partake of his goodness in a very real and personal way. Far from just knowing about him (as anyone who reads the scriptures can), we must strive to really know Him… to have a daily, personal relationship with him. I pity those who stop seeking Him when they have only scratched the surface, for they do not yet know the full flavor. I admittedly have much yet to learn, in truth being as one who knows the flavor of the peach, but little more. I am newly inspired to know my God and His Son Jesus Christ at an ever more intimate level.